These poems come from the wandering restless part of my pilgrim soul. Some come from actual voyages. Some are the navigation poems that chart the parts of me that always try to help me find my way, wherever I am - outward or inward bound. Some report the sightings of other wanderers. Some simply become natural metaphors.This collection only offers reveries and imaginings, mainly gleaned from past travels. In the end, perhaps this is what we need: an opportunity to dream, to fantasize about making our way to else-wheres, without any particular agendas that need to be driving usIn a sense we are all out-bounders, outbound for elsewhere. And where might "elsewhere" be? Does it really matter?There's an irony here. Life is made of so much irony, enigma and paradox. These poems come from the solitude of the outward voyage, that leads of course to the inward voyage. And this kind of voyaging seems always to signify a solitary vision quest. Alone. Bereft of human contact. I had to voyage in order to appreciate fully what this really means.Voyages begin with a vision of getting away, and then of arriving at new things. But we take a lot with us when we travel, and in our minds we find things we might not have found as readily, if we'd stayed at home. We discover, and then we come home.
About the Author: Harry Youtt is a long-time Plain-speech Resonance poet. He's the author of several collections of poetry, including What My Father Didn't Know I Learned From Him, I'll Always Be from Lorain, Getting Through, and Elderverses. His collection: Finbarr Visits the Pacific, is forthcoming in early 2018. In the poetry he writes, his goal is to communicate in resonant language that flows naturally. He believes the highest purpose of poetry is to make itself understood by as many as possible. But he also believes that most poetry should be looked at, again and again, the way you'd go back to a good photograph, to make sure you've seen and sensed everything that was there when the picture got taken. With his wife, Judith Prager, Harry has been teaching workshops in fiction and narrative non-fiction writing in the UCLA (Ext.) Writers' Program since 1990. He also occasionally conducts poetry workshops in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. His poetry is published in numerous anthologies and journals, where it has garnered a couple of national awards and several Pushcart Prize nominations. He also writes and speaks about poetry, consciousness and American Culture in literary publications and at international conferences. He has done readings of his own work in numerous locations throughout the United States and in Ireland, England, and Wales.